1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to storage area networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Storage area networks (SANs) are becoming extremely large. Some of the drivers behind this increase in size include server virtualization and mobility. With the advent of virtualized machines (VMs), the number of connected virtual host devices has increased dramatically, to the point of reaching scaling limits of the SAN. Classically Fibre Channel fabrics are limited in the number of domains, usually synonymous with switches, that can exist in the fabric, due to both addressing issues and stability issues. Fibre Channel routers were developed as a way to allow the overall SAN to grow larger without having to reach scale limits of any individual fabric.
The operation of the Fiber Channel routers is generally defined in various Fibre Channel specifications, such as FC-IFR, Rev. 1.06, dated May 12, 2010; FC-FS-3, Rev. 1.11, dated Oct. 22, 2010; FC-SW-5, Rev. 8.0, dated Nov. 22, 2006 and FC-LS-2, Rev. 2.00, dated Jun. 26, 2008, all from T11 and all incorporated herein by reference. A portion of the operations includes determining the various proxy devices for each fabric. This has been done through the use of a special logical storage area network (LSAN) tag present in zone names. The zone has a name starting with “LSAN” and includes the identifiers, preferably worldwide names (WWNs) of the devices in the zone. These zones are defined in the fabric where each device is attached. The LSAN zone entries for all of the edge fabrics in the SAN are obtained and reviewed for matching device entries. When a match is found, the device from the other fabric is imported and presented as a proxy device. For a more detailed description, please refer U.S. Pat. No. 7,936,769, hereby incorporated by reference.
While this method of determining devices to be proxied is effective, as the SAN grows larger and more edge fabrics and devices are included, the amount of storage required by numerous LSAN zones becomes a factor in scaling the SAN as every router maintains the entire LSAN zone list. Therefore the method of determining devices to proxy or present in the edge fabrics is limiting SAN scale.